Unveiling plastics materials flows in the EU-27 and their environmental impacts – Resources Conservation & Recycling Webinar 10/09/2026

Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be integrated to map the life cycle impacts associated with material flows along complex value chains. In this study, MFA and LCA were combined to unveil the flows and impacts of the entire European Union (EU) plastic value chain for 9 sectors, from production to end-of-life with polymers-specific granular details and addressing 16 environmental impact categories. The results highlighted the dominance of the Packaging sector in the EU plastic consumption, and the significant quantities of waste not being separately collected and rather lost in the environment or mismanaged, thereby leaving the full untapped potential of plastic waste recycling unrealised. The Climate Change impacts of the entire value chain exceeded 200 Mt CO2 eq., dominated by plastic production and manufacturing. Results proved how combined improvements along the value chain or plastic production reductions are necessary to enable significant impacts’ savings.

Andrea Amadei (JRC, Politecnico di Milano) will introduce his latest article during this 40 min-long webinar, showing that better recycling and lower plastic production are both essential.

Join the event on September 10 at 19:00 (Rome timezone). Registration is required in advance by filling this form: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BMbu71WQRr-joOpSZSL9ig#/registration